The Energy Department should grant a request from Freeport LNG to expand its export capacity at its Texas liquefaction and export terminal, a group of bipartisan lawmakers said. In a Jan. 18 letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the Texas lawmakers said liquefied natural gas exports “continue to encourage investment in U.S. natural gas production, which in turn generates billions of dollars in new investments, benefiting local communities, producing tax revenues, and creating jobs.” They asked the agency to “move quickly to grant such a request, as local, national and global communities stand to greatly benefit from the approval of Freeport LNG’s application.” An Energy Department spokesperson didn’t comment.
The Senate Banking Committee Jan. 19 approved the nominations of four Export-Import Bank officials and one official with the Commerce Department’s Foreign Commercial Service. The committee advanced all five for consideration before the full Senate: Reta Jo Lewis, for president of Ex-Im; Judith Pryor, for first vice president of Ex-Im; Owen Herrnstadt, for member of Ex-Im’s board of directors; Parisa Salehi, for Ex-Im inspector general; and Arun Venkataraman, for assistant secretary of Commerce and director general of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service.
More than 25 House Republicans asked the administration to initiate a case at the World Trade Organization against India over that country's financial support for its wheat and rice growers. The letter, led by Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kan., was sent Jan. 13. In the press release announcing the letter, the CEO of USA Rice said, "If left unchecked, the Indian export market will continue to grow at an uncontrollable rate and threaten the viability of rice and wheat producers throughout the world.” The press release also noted that some senators had earlier made the same request. "For too long, Indian government policies have cost U.S. wheat money and export opportunities. Those Indian policies cost U.S. wheat farmers more than $500 million annually,” said Kansas Association of Wheat Growers President Justin Knopf. “With India poised for near-record exports, time is of the utmost importance. We encourage the USTR to use the WTO to hold India accountable to their past commitments."
Sens. John Kennedy, R-La., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., cosponsored a bill that would ban the import and export of bear viscera, a bill designed to discourage bear poaching in order to harvest bear bile, used in traditional Chinese medicines. The bill, introduced Jan. 11, says that while the black bear population in the U.S. is stable, government officials have found that U.S. bears have been poached for their gallbladders.
Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized the Senate’s decision last week to not pass a bill that would have required new sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, saying it sends a “message of appeasement” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Senate couldn’t reach the 60-vote threshold required to pass the bill after the White House convinced many Democrats to vote against the legislation, which it said would have undermined unity with Europe (see 2201130067).
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is requesting an explanation from the General Services Administration after it reportedly provided a portal for U.S. agencies to buy technology produced by a Chinese company on the Entity List. In a letter to GSA, Rubio pointed to reports that the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Defense Department’s Defense Finance and Accounting Service and the Department of the Army all used the GSA Advantage portal to buy hard drives and video surveillance equipment manufactured by Lorex, a subsidiary of Dahua Technology. Dahua Technology was added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2019 for providing the Chinese government with surveillance equipment to monitor the country’s Uyghur population.
A bill that would have imposed sanctions on companies associated with the Russia-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline was rejected by the Senate Jan. 13 after it failed to garner the necessary 60 votes to pass. The bill, introduced in December by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex. (see 2201110059), faced strong opposition from the White House, which said before the vote that the bill would “only serve to undermine unity amongst our European allies,” including Germany (see 2201110059).
The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and that committee's chairman, as well as the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, urged the deputy U.S. trade representative to press Mexico and Canada on market access issues for the energy and agricultural sectors, and the senators also complained about barriers for the telecom, pharmaceutical and television industries in either Mexico or Canada. Deputy USTR Jayme White is meeting with Canadian and Mexican counterparts this week.
The leaders of the Senate and House foreign affairs committees urged the Biden administration to impose more sanctions on the Bashar al-Assad regime to “reinforce” the U.S.’s position against Syria. The lawmakers said several Arab partners have continued formal and informal relationships with the regime despite its “horrific” human rights abuses, and more sanctions could make sure the regime remains isolated.
Agricultural and energy market access in Mexico are of concern to Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, as he talks about the need to enforce USMCA's provisions, but he dismissed Mexico's concern that the U.S. is not following the treaty's text as it lays out rules for imported automobiles and light trucks to enter the U.S. tariff-free.